While breading zucchini isn't something you'll find yourself doing on a weekday, you can bread, bake, and freeze so you have slices ready to go. These frozen slices are a great start to many meals... Obviously, fried eggplant and zucchini are wonderful in a parmesan casseroles, but what about pairing panko crusted eggplant with garlic sauce and rice? Or try corn meal on squash and bake up an enchilada casserole!
ingredients
2 1/2-3 Pounds Summer Squash or Eggplant, 1/2" thick slices
3.25 Ounces (1 Cup) White Flour or Rice Flour
5 Eggs
1/2 Teaspoon Table Salt
9 Ounces (1 3/4 Cups) Breadcrumbs, Panko, or Corn Meal
Deviations & Tips
If you have a surplus of buns or bread lying around, make your own breadcrumbs.
I like to leave these unseasoned so that they're ready for any application, but feel free to season the crumbs with garlic powder and herbs such as dried oregano and basil.
Make it gluten-free by using rice flour & cornmeal.
the method
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Cut your squash or eggplant into slices that are about 1/2" thick. You can cut along the length for longer slices or along the width. I like to take a ruler and score marks every 1/2" so I don't have to think about each cut.
Use a knife to mark every 1/2".
Place the flour, eggs, and crumbs into 3 separate shallow and wide dishes. The dishes must be wide enough to accommodate your slices. Pie pans work well. Beat the eggs with the salt. Have ready 2 or 3 large cookie sheets for the breaded slices.
Have all ingredients ready.
Dip a slice into flour and evenly coat both sides. Follow by completely coating each side in egg and then in breading. Move slice to cookie sheet and repeat with remaining slices. If you run out of one of your ingredients, you can always add a little more.
Ready to be baked.
Bake for 10 minutes. The slices should just be thinking about getting golden but not at all brown. Flip each slice and bake for an additional 10 minutes. Again, you don't want these to be brown. (You'll get these golden brown when you use them later.)
Let slices cool completely. If you have the space, you can freeze these on the sheets in a single layer. Otherwise, you can use wax paper between the layers as shown below. Once frozen solid, you can transfer these slices to a freezer bag or airtight container and store in the freezer.
Freeze layers in between wax paper.